Tambja morosa? from Pemba, Tanzania

November 22, 2005
From: Wilhelm van Zyl

Hi Bill,

Here are some pictures of wat I believe is Tambja morosa from Pemba island on the East African coast.According to the Factsheet the distribution is around the Tropical Western Pacific. I saw this species on quite a few dives between about 10 and 15m water depth.

Locality: Pemba island, Zanzibar, Tanzania. Indian Ocean. Depth: 10 - 15 m
Length: 6 cm. 2 October 2005. broken Coral reef. Photographer: Wilhelm van Zyl

Regards
Wilhelm

diving@cyberdale.co.za

Van Zyl, F.W., 2005 (Nov 22) Tambja morosa? from Pemba, Tanzania. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/15252

Dear Wilhelm,
I am not sure how many blue marked species of Tambja there are. Baba (1987) described Tambja kushimotoensis, with a green background colour, but I suspect a species can vary from green to black in background colouration. It is possible the blue markings on the gills are an indication of different species but I think some work needs to be done on the anatomy to be sure. I have left a variety of colour forms as Tambja morosa on the Forum until Marta Pola has finshed her stuides, Hopefully she will adress the T. morosa - T. kushimotoensis question. Certainly blue coloured animals have been reported from the western Indian Ocean region and Yonow (1991) reports an animal, similar in colour to yours but with a green background colour, from Mauritius. Another complication is that Charles Eliot (1904) described a species, Nembrotha caerulea, from east Africa. Unfortunately the only information on its external colour was that it was 'blue'. From his radular description this was a species of Nembrotha rather than Tambja so it would be nice to know something about the radula of your 'blue' animals.

All I can say is that this group of nembrothids remains a 'work in progress'

  • Baba, K. (1987)  Two new green colored species of Tambja from Japan (Nudibranchia: Polyceridae). Venus, The Japanese Journal of Malacology,  46(1), 13-18.
  • Eliot, C.N.E. (1904)  On some nudibranchs from East Africa and Zanzibar. Part V. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1904(2), 83-105, Pls.3-4.
  • Yonow, N & Hayward, P.J. (1991) Opisthobranches de l'Ile Maurice, avec la description de deux especes nouvelles (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia). Revue francaise d'aquariologie, 18(1), 1-30, Figs1-13.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2005 (Nov 22). Comment on Tambja morosa? from Pemba, Tanzania by Wilhelm van Zyl. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/15252

Factsheet

Tambja morosa

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